Entry #7: The Film Fresh, and Additional Insights

 Fresh

Earlier last week, I watched a film for my English called Fresh (Note: This is about the 2009 film, not the recent movie about cannibals(?) that my family kept asking about). The beginning of the film, and the general atmosphere behind it, was very casual and down-to-earth. There was a lot of discussion throughout this movie about the industry behind America's food production, the processes of which the film was based on. In spite of the concepts being rather complex to fully examine, the farmers, workers, and consumers spoke directly to the people watching, for the sake of a general audience. This wasn't necessarily intentional, however, due to the fact that the average person could relate to industry and the idea of what it means to work.

[Source: vardan harutyunyan]

The film goes into farming crops, pigs, chickens, cows, and the like, but there are several key points throughout that I would like to summarize quickly.

First, there's a huge problem with working conditions in massive farming operations due to the risk of being around heavy pollutants, chemicals, and unusually resistant pests, bacteria, and diseases. In order for farming to scale to be suitable for investment, there seems to be a general censensus that you need heavy pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and unnatural styles of positioning/rotating animals/crops.

The next huge point is the problems that come with massive operations getting bought out, leading to great levels of consolidation of our food supply. It was mentioned in the film that Walmart, for instance, tends to destroy the local businesses, and that these same unnatural patterns encouraged by both State and private consultants are in fact pretty inefficient. The truth is that you can't outsell what is essentially a system of monopoly - there is no fair market nor has there ever been truly perfect competition. A major threat of working outside of this system that should be mentioned here is that you do not recieve government subsidies as often for going against convention and orthodoxy of mainstream agribusiness avenues; another major threat is the interconnectedness of it all, where if the businesses you hate so much decide to leave, you, as a farmer or businessowner or worker, will be out of business or out of work.

The last major point I wanted to summarize, was an interesting side effect of the ones before; as quoted in the film, the minerals and "vitamins ... diminished 40%" in our food when compared to the year 1950. It seems that low quality food is better off sold, with the help of the government and major corporations. I suspect regulatory capture is at hand here specifically. LA Weekly brilliantly wrote a brief, yet insightful summary on the issue in general terms earlier this year.

Of course, I wouldn't get so far without at least bringing up some of the bias present here, as well as some additional background.

Now, the farmers presented in this film are extremely hard-working and claim the ability to work outside of this system to present a more sustainable and more profitable operation. I can't disagree with numbers, but I don't think there was too much success knocking down Walmart and building up communities stuck in food deserts. At some point, it did feel like idealistic ramblings that a food activist would use to attempt (in vain) to change people individually. I don't believe you can push against billions when, according to a piece from The Guardian, millions of Americans have become food insecure. I do not believe in individual-by-individual action, in honesty. I think it comes off as insensitive, boring, and sometimes offensive or intrusive to people who are in line after a long day at work, deciding to pick up something for $3.99 against a supposedly superior $12 product. On top of this, I heard critiques in the film about how it was inefficient that certain farmers weren't able to hire for a certain shift due to working hours from prison trustees. There was also a critique that the major firms were not allowing for decent benefits, hours, and wages to their workers.

But, again, there's a tight relationship going on with everything at play and making a personal moral choice isn't going to stack against what's already existing. Some of these people working are stuck, and as soon as the company decides it no longer serves a purpose in that region ... their jobs are gone. We are currently reliant on cheap prison labor, cheap migrant labor, monopoly, and finance/rent extraction. Ignoring the connections makes for questionable solutions. Co-ops are amazing, and everyone loves getting a good job when they can get one, but jobs are mobile nowadays. Capital serves globalization; if an American doesn't want to work in a poor paying industry job, they ship it somewhere else. This isn't upsetting to them - it's cheaper. Does Walmart care if they become inefficient and their quality drops when their processes save and create billions in revenue? Do the local governments care about pushing out Walmart when their local businesses are nonexistant and the community knows no alternative? It also wouldn't matter so much if co-ops were the "right" way to do things, since we're not really looking at a small business doing so-so when there are already multi-billion dollar companies that are doing better - at least on paper. Unless we started pushing co-ops and better conditions in countries like Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and Bangladesh, I'm not so confident of what could come out of it.

Let me put it bluntly: without systemic change beyond whether we eat a $1 apple or a $5 apple, there is only temporary change.

All harsh critiques aside, the importance of films like these can't be understated. People are not aware of what happens with these industries, although, from my view, that's somewhat the whole point of dividing it up. From my personal experience watching the movie, my strongest emotions weren't about how I should spend more for higher quality produce, but instead a consideration to go vegan. The segements where animals were shown was pretty disgusting, and the discussion about Mad Cow Disease and other infections didn't help. All in all, this was insightful and enjoyable to watch. All I can say is that we should bat a critical eye to what we've been presented, understand the conditions present, and try to sympathize more broadly.

Signing off.